Nietzsche: The Silence of Zarathustra

Nietzsche: The Silence of Zarathustra is a biographical play that gives life to the great thinker through an intimate portrait, where family, friends, and contemporaries come together to evoke a dying nineteenth century. Beginning after his breakdown, the play makes Nietzsche's life come alive through a series of flashbacks that take us from meetings with Richard Wagner or Lou Salomé to his breakdown and impotent end, manipulated and exploited by his proud sister. Whether you are familiar or not with the inventor of such concepts as the Eternal Return, the Will to Power, or the Overman, the play is an accessible portrait of the man behind the philosophy, and shows how intricately both were intertwined. From the introduction: "If we are to understand him we must first see the man behind the philosopher, see his shyness and his eagerness to learn, understand the power of admiration. The center of gravity that makes his philosophy one of the most challenging: "what does not kill you makes you stronger." It is what empowered him to create a unique and complex body of thought we still debate passionately today. In the end, though madness and death do appear to have vanquished the man, his self-professed posthumous glory, pebble in destiny's shoe, has proven his philosophy stronger and more perceptive than his detractors would have had us think. It is why, despite his ultimate silence, he is still so challenging today."